My Frivolous Blog

Move to Ubuntu!

Like I promised in my earlier post, I have given Ubuntu a try. Man, am I glad I did! I have been using Linux—mostly Red Hat and Fedora Core— since 1998. I have since had good fortune to try several distros of Linux on various laptops/desktops but none was as easy to install as Ubuntu. The install was complete in just six steps—even some of those few could be avoided if I accepted the defaults presented to me.

Before I describe the easy installation process, let me mention the two main reasons why I moved to Ubuntu:

• Upgrade to Fedora Core 5 rendered my laptop without a GUI. I mean without X Windows. FC5 failed to recognize my video card. SUSE 10 had the same problem. The video card worked just fine on FC3.
• While looking for a solution to the above problem, I bumped into good words about Ubuntu on the ‘net. Also, Chris from Ubuntu was patient with me when I asked him questions at Linux World 2006 in San Francisco. (Red Hat was conspicuous by its absence at LW2006 SFO.) I picked up the Ubuntu CD (workstation version) from Ubuntu booth.

Like they say, seeing is believing. I turned on my laptop and popped in install CD before it booted to FC3 or Windows XP Pro I had on this laptop. It took a few minutes before LiveCD version of Ubuntu was up and running…without anything installed on the hard disk. X Windows, wireless network, USB mouse, etc. were as good as installed! Excited about the painless process so far, with CD still in drive I clicked on the “Install” icon on the desktop. The short install thus began.

Selecting one to use as default from a bunch of languages is step 1 of 6. The default is english. Since I accepted the default, this shouldn’t even count as one of the steps.

Choosing timezone is step 2 of 6. A fun exercise to pick a city in one’s timezone from a world map. Both clicking with mouse or selecting from “Selected City” picklist are supported. Setting time, if needed, is trivial.

Choosing keyboard layout from a list isn’t hard. This is step 3 of 6.

Identifying myself to create an account for myself. I also give my computer a cool name. That’s all in step 4 of 6.

Possibly the easiest of steps if I was installing Ubuntu on a computer with a dedicated hard disk for it. I could then choose the defaults and be on my way to the last step. Since I have other operating systems already installed on the hard disk…and I intend to keep one of them, I have to exercise gray matter here.

Creating necessary partitions and indicating which of them need to go through formating, I am almost done. On to the last step!

Bummer! It turns out this isn’t even a step. Just have to confirm that install can go ahead and do its thing in step 6 of 6—the last step of install.

Confirmation taken care of, I went about with my chores. When I came back a little later, the install was complete…with a clear message as to what I should do next. The default is to continue using the live CD. Restart now, baby!

Restart and login later, time to get more free software! Although software installed from CD is adequate, it doesn’t hurt to upgrade to the latest versions of the same and also to get more software which wasn’t packaged in the install CD. It can be had with one click of a button on an icon on the “taskbar”. Ubuntu, with version 6.0.6 LTS (Long Term Support), guarantees to keep the OS and other software up to date for three years through package manager. And it is free!

Upgrading installed software wasn’t painful either. The system is on the cutting edge now with a cool OS. All hardware is working. The laptop can be suspended or sent into hibernation and resumed without any glitches. All kinds of software tools at my disposal. Even taking screenshots at each step and saving them to my webserver, the install process took no more than an hour or so. It was stress free; never a blue screen or hung install. As perfect an installation as I’ve always dreamed about. What more can I say?

 

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